I also like the MSI GS/GT/G* 60 or 70 style chassis, which includes more audio ports, but those might only be available as more fully built and expensive configurations than a barebones whitebook.http://www.msi.com/product/nb/

What I had thought about was registering to become a small whitebook studio style reseller, like several others out there that customize a whitebook to customer order. Then go beyond what the ODM may have intended, if contracts don't prohibit that, to swap motherboards, and maybe that's not really much different than partnering with a manufacturer to get chassis without motherbaord either, but may be easier and give more options, even if a bit more expensive. At least this way you are buying without the CPU, hoperfully without OS, etc.and maybe even without hard drive, memory, etc. particularly if memory might be different type (ddr2 vs ddr3 between original and your PPC chip)

I haven't yet checked if the above links still actually work, just a copy/paste from an email to myself from February 2012.

At the time I was looking only for what might be available, and did not get into pricing. I was also looking for particular features, such as 15inch size, backlit keyboard, ExpressCard slot, and maybe some other things that you are not so concerned about. While I was also looking for MXM slot types, it was often hard to tell if a model supported that or not, Clevo sometimes mentioned it in specs.

Another detail is the system cooling. Hopefully one can reuse an MXM heatsink system, but the CPU cooler might need to be replaced with almost the same thing, if the original mounting to theCPU/motherboard doesn't work for the PPC chip size/shape that you have chosen, or if CPU thickness above the PCB surface is different then things might not fit properly between PPC chip and original CPU cooler attachment.